Rambo tactics have limits

Paddy Agnew/Euroscene: Last Saturday, Norwegian side Rosenborg won their national championship, the Tippeligaen title, for the 12th consecutive season.

Not exactly a world shattering piece of news, you might argue, in the era of Beckham, Zidane, et al.

Rosenborg's title win - thanks to a 5-4 win over their closest challengers, FK Broda/Glimt (another household name) - set me off on a little jaunt down memory lane to a chilly December 1996 evening at the San Siro in Milan when Rosenborg pulled off arguably their greatest ever European win when beating the mighty AC Milan 2-1.

When one writes "mighty" in relation to that Milan side, one can hardly be accused of hype. After all, this was a side which had won four Italian titles and one Champions Cup in the previous five seasons. Among those who lined out against the Trondheim Ballklubb were such as Montenegrin Dejan Savicevic, Croat Zvonimir Boban, Frenchman Christophe Dugarry and Italians Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio.

Talking to Rosenborg captain Bent Skammelsruud after the game, it came as no surprise to hear him describe that night as the "biggest moment ever for Norwegian club football".

The problem for Norwegian football, of course, is that seven seasons later that San Siro night is still its "biggest moment ever", at least at club level.

Although the Trondheim club has qualified for the Champions League group phase in eight of the last nine seasons, that San Siro night represents the only time their challenge got any further.

This season, 12th league title notwithstanding, Rosenborg failed to qualify for the group stage, being eliminated in the third qualifying round by Deportivo La Coruna and thus "relegated" to the UEFA Cup.

Prior to that tie, Rosenborg coach Aage Hareide had suggested his side needed to be "a little nuts" and to play "like Rambo" in order to defeat the Spanish club. Those of us familiar with Rosenborg over the years would argue that too often they have indeed played "like Rambo", all muscle-bound, over-physical and short on creative invention.

Such tactics work well through the Norwegian summer season where Rosenborg's only serious opponent seems to be the record book. Even back in 1996, at the time of the San Siro glory, things were a little lopsided in Norway since that year Rosenborg recorded their biggest ever league win, beating Brann 10-0.

It had been speculated that the retirement last season of Rosenborg's living legend, coach Nils Arne Eggen, might prompt a reversal of the club's all dominant fortunes. After all, Eggen had been with the club for 21 of the previous 24 years, treating the matter of coaching Norway's finest club as a mere inconvenience that got between him and his real passions, namely literature and history. (Eggen not only studied both subjects at university but he also taught them).

Eggen's successor Hareide, however, seems to have taken over where his predecessor left off, making the most of an almost all-Norwegian squad that looks light years away from the power-house clubs of English, Italian, German and Spanish football. For example, top Rosenborg salaries are under the €500,000 per annum mark and are usually linked to a player's length of service rather than alleged "star quality".

Speaking to BBC's World Soccer programme last weekend, Hareide confessed that he would like the club to have a good UEFA Cup run to gain further experience, adding: "There are plans to start a Nordic league with the best Danish and Swedish sides along with those from Norway and hopefully we can do that. That would help our match standard."

Whilst the Rosenborg fans wait for the joys of a future Pan-Scandinavian league, they can console themselves with a good UEFA Cup start last week which saw them defeat Latvian side Venspils, 4-1 away.

The same fans, too, can feel good about their club's contribution to Norway's national team since players as different as Roma striker John Carew, Spurs striker Steffen Iversen and former Liverpool defenders, Stig Bjornebye and Veggard Heggem, all played for Rosenborg.

Another of Rosenborg's favourites sons was Roger Albertsen, scorer of Norway's first goal in their celebrated 2-1 World Cup qualifier defeat of England in 1981 (remember the commentator screaming at Maggie Thatcher).

Sadly, Albertsen died this summer at the age of just 45. Perhaps, he watched last weekend's triumph from somewhere on high.